April 16, 2015Last week, we received game changing news from NAfME and the Music Education Policy Roundtable. The new bipartisan Senate ESEA proposal, “Every Child Achieves Act of 2015,” would retain the core academic subject section from No Child Left Behind (including “arts”), and, additionally, would add “music,” as a specifically enumerated core academic subject. This is a monumental development.

This week, the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee has been marking up this new proposal, and NAfME has had a presence during all of these deliberations, in order to ensure that this crucial language is preserved in the draft.

The Senate HELP Committee spent most of the morning and afternoon yesterday debating the “Every Child Achieves Act of 2015.” Unfortunately, in spite of much progress toward the finish line, they were unable to conclude voting on amendments, and the final vote on the bill. Deliberations will continue with only a few select amendments remaining for debate, before the final vote.

Of key interest is a bipartisan early education grant program [Murray (D-WA)/Isakson (R-GA)]. Today’s discussion did yield one disappointing result, however, as Senator Casey’s (D-PA) “well-rounded” funding grant proposal (which would have included “music and “arts”) failed to pass, by only one vote.

We look forward to the markup’s conclusion tomorrow, and to seeing a marked up bill with “music” and “arts” as core academic subjects. Please continue to follow the coverage on social media, throughout the remainder of the debate. Thank you for your continued support!

AMP wishes to thank Christopher Woodside and the entire team at NAfME for their tireless efforts on the Hill in support of music education. The Association of Music Parents (AMP) is honored to play a part on the Music Education Policy Roundtable.